The story of the Royal Engineers has always been one of service, skill and quiet
determination. Sappers are rarely the loudest in any account of war, but they are
very often the soldiers upon whom everything else depends. Roads must be
cleared, bridges built or destroyed, routes opened, obstacles overcome, mines dealt
with, water found, positions prepared and, when required, rifles lifted and bayonets
fixed. That is the nature of the Sappers. The work is practical, dangerous and often
done without ceremony. It is also essential.

In much of the writing about the Second World War, the Sappers appear only
briefly. They arrive to solve a problem, then disappear again while the main story
moves on. Those who have served with the Royal Engineers know this does not tell
the whole truth. The Sappers are not supporting figures in war. They are part of the
fight from beginning to end, often carrying a burden that is physically, technically
and mentally demanding.

A Sapper’s Story - 1940 - Retreat to Dunkirk gives welcome attention to that truth.

Billy MacLeod writes with the understanding of a man who knows what it means to
belong to the Royal Engineers. He understands the humour, the discipline, the
irritation, the pride and the stubbornness that run through a section of working
soldiers. He also understands that courage is not always polished or easily
described. It may appear as competence under pressure. It may be found in the
person who keeps working when tired, frightened, drenched, hungry and under
fire, because the job still has to be done.

This novel is set during one of the most difficult periods for the British Army in the
Second World War, the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. That campaign has often been
remembered through wide-ranging accounts and national memory but those who
endured it did so one road, one bridge, one field and one order at a time. Billy’s
decision to stay close to the men on the ground gives the book its strength. The
reader sees what the Sapper sees. Nothing is made grander than it needs to be. The
danger is close, the work is hard, and the men survive by trust, skill, instinct and
humour. The Royal Engineers have a long tradition of being asked to do whatever is
necessary, wherever it is necessary. That tradition is present on every page of this
story. It is there in the technical work, in the banter, in the exasperation and in the
refusal to give in when conditions are at their worst.

Billy has not written a formal history, nor does he claim to have done so. He has
written a novel grounded in real events, real soldiering and a deep respect for the
men whose work has too often gone unrecognised. That is an honourable
undertaking. Fiction, when handled with care, can sometimes bring us closer to the
human truth of soldiering than a report or diary ever could.
This book remembers the Sappers not as background figures but as soldiers,
military engineers and comrades in their own right. It gives them weight. It gives
them voice. It puts them where they have always belonged, in the thick of the story.

Lieutenant General Sir Mark Mans KCB CBE DL

Former Chief Royal Engineer